


Brother, I'll be Your Shelter

by orphan_account



Series: prompt fills 2017 [6]
Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Dubious Science, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Pre-Canon, you have no idea how long i've been waiting to use that tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-19
Updated: 2017-05-30
Packaged: 2018-10-19 23:22:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10650198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Mac and Jack are captured by a scientist that wants to test the limits of human endurance. He decides that Mac is the perfect subject.A continuation/AU of #2 from my story, "Five Times Jack Saved Mac."





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place about two years pre-canon. Title and story inspired by "Brother" by NEEDTOBREATHE.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took the basic premise from one of the times in my fic "5 Times Jack Saved Mac," #2, and expanded on it. It wasn't quite the same as the original, but I liked the way this turned out better. Story will be updated as I find time.
> 
> Warnings for story: suggested off-screen torture, canon-typical violence

He's sitting by his friend when he hears the footsteps coming closer. Jack straightens as he prepares himself for whatever's coming.

They were abducted on a mission while they were heading back to exfil, approximately seventeen hours ago. They've barely seen their captors since, but Jack can't shake the feeling that something very, very bad is coming. 

Jack watches as they enter the cell, men armed to the teeth and with heavy stares. They have guns strapped to their hips, so tantalizingly close- but Mac's still wearing the bruise from the last time Jack tried. 

The man settles back, wary, and very, very conscious of the unconscious form behind him. 

The man in charge, the head honcho, the big boss, whatever Jack decides to call him that day, steps forward. His face is serious, his tone solemn. "Come, Mr. Dalton," he says. "I want to show you something." 

Jack snarls back, "Not a chance."

The man sighs. It's not the put-upon, fake-sad sigh that these type of men usually give. It's the sigh of a man that truly regrets what he has to do. "You know what will happen if you refuse." 

And the thing is, Jack does know. The knowledge weighs heavy on his chest, and it sits behind him in a limp pile of blond hair and bruises and blue eyes that are pained every time they open, now. 

He stands, reluctantly, hands raised to show that he won't go for the gun, not again. The man smiles, a strange sight on a face that's watched impassively as pain is brought to the two men before him. Jack walks towards him, trying desperately not to glance back at the kid he's leaving behind. 

As he walks out the door, following his captor and herded by the majority of the guards, he does sneak a look back, though. He sees the guards starting to walk toward the unconscious form- and then the form stirs, finally, and Jack wants to laugh, in a moment of morbid humor. The kid couldn't have picked a worse time to wake up. He raises his head, and his eyes take in the guards, at first, and then he sees the open doorway.

His eyes meet Jack's, gaze alight with a dazed confusion with a spark of panic, and Jack knows, in his gut, that this is a  _bad idea_. The brunet- hair stained darker than it's natural color by the blood that's dried there- turns back, hoping that he can make it back into the room without the soldiers that are around him catching him. 

He makes it one step.

They catch his arms, pull him back and after his captor- and suddenly, in the midst of his fear for his friend, Jack feels a surge of irrational anger that the man hasn't even told them his name yet. 

Surely, holding two people hostage for almost a day should be enough to warrant a name, at least. 

Jack's dragged into a large room with a large glass window that goes from floor to ceiling. Exercise equipment and machines that do things that Jack doesn't know litter the room on the other side of the window. 

He takes a sudden interest in the other room when he sees the door open and a familiar blond being dragged into the room. He looks better than the last time Jack saw him by far, fighting and struggling against the guards holding his arms. They look harried, and Jack mentally cheers for his friend. He can hear the sounds of the struggle through the window, albeit somewhat muffled. 

Their captor clears his throat, and Jack's gaze shoots back to him. The man spreads his hands, motions to the equipment that surrounds the people on the other side of the glass. "Well, I'm sure you know what's going on now." At Jack's look of incomprehension, the man raises an eyebrow, the first sign of- well, anything other than seriousness. "Perhaps not, then."

He walks to the window, hands clasped behind his back. "First, a bit of backstory." 

Jack opens his mouth to snark, and the man raises a hand. "I know, I know, it seems to be the cliche villain thing to do these days. This is essential, though, so do please listen. 

"To understand why you are here, first you must understand the field of biology- specifically, the field of physiology, or the study of the human body and its functions. So many amazing discoveries have been made in this field, and the limits have been sketched out, but one has to wonder, could someone incentivize someone to last longer than they should?"

Jack's gut clenches, and there's an ominous foreboding in the back of his mind that's screaming at him to find a way out before this situation becomes irreparable. 

There's nowhere to go, though. No way out. 

The man's speaking again. "There is a theory that the mind is stronger than the body, and can make the body do amazing things, but it's never been fleshed out. This can be explained by the way that these phenomenons always happen when someone that the person in question cares about is in danger. Of course, there hasn't been a scientist yet that's willing to put people in danger in the pursuit of science- or, perhaps, someone who's actually gone through with it."

He turns, then, and motions to Jack. "The world hasn't met me, though. Soon, the name Cornelius Higgins will be known as the man that was willing to sacrifice quite a bit for human advancement. Your younger friend there- and that's the key word, you see, younger- will be my test subject."

Higgins pauses for a moment, then says, with a curl of his lip that speaks of the contempt he has for what he thinks Jack's intelligence is, and he says, "I can see you're a bit confused, so I'll simplify it. I want to know what your friend will do if he thinks that you're in danger. What he _can_ do."

Jack's mouth has always been one to run away without him, and it does so most often when he's trying to process something. This habit makes a reappearance in the form of mocking disbelief. "You know that's, like, the most stereotypical mad scientist name out there, right? Did your parents hate you, or what?"

He's lucky, he reflects a moment later, that Higgins is too caught up in basking in his glory to pay Jack much attention. The man waves aside Jack's comments and turns back to the window, knocking on it and pointing to his watch. The soldiers check their own simultaneously, and Mac sees his chance. 

The kid makes a run for it, but he doesn't make it far. 

A guard grabs him, and it would be almost comical, if the situation wasn't so serious, the way that the guard picks up the smaller man so easily and slams him into the ground. 

Mac lies there for a moment, stunned, chest heaving as he tries to draw air into his lungs. Jack lunges for the glass, mind immediately going into overdrive, but he's pulled back by three guards. 

Higgins shakes his head, still staring at his watch. "If he had just waited two more minutes," he murmurs quietly, almost too low to be heard, "He would've been able to expend all of that energy. Oh, well. C'est la vie."

Jack wants to laugh at the way the man mangles the words, but he can't. The situation bears down on him, crushing him. He knows the way this is going to play out, and he can't bear to just  _sit_ here while it happens, but-

He can't do anything else, and that hurts more than his still-throbbing head wound, more than the bruises that have accumulated over his body. 

Higgins walks to the wall, places his hand on a scanner embedded in the wall, and waits until a door opens. He walks through, and a moment later, he reappears in the other room. His voice is muffled, but Jack can still make it out as he says, looking into what looks like a video camera, "Let's get started. Time of beginning of experiment, seven am."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fun fact: this sat in my drafts folder as "eggs and omelets" until i posted the first chapter
> 
> sorry for taking so long, guys! i had family in town over the weekend, and didn't have a ton of time.

An hour into the experiment, Jack's leaning against the window, forearms planted firmly against the glass as he watches the other room and ignores the soldiers that line the back wall of the room. He paced for half an hour until he realized that he was only making himself more nervous.

Now he's moved on to more productive, or at least calming, activities, like trying to bore holes in Higgins' skull. 

It's not working, sadly, and the man is obliviously speaking into the camera over the noise of Mac's feet pounding on the treadmill. 

"Subject has shown high endurance. It has been running at a steady speed of nine point two miles an hour for fifty-three minutes without rest or water. Speed has been increased slowly over time." The man looks over at one of the assistants that entered the room shortly after Higgins started the experiment and nods to her. The woman presses a button on the treadmill, and the treadmill speeds up. Higgins looks back at the camera. "Treadmill speed increased to ten miles an hour."

Jack doesn't miss the way that Higgins refers to the kid as an "it," and that makes his blood boil, hot anger rising inside of him and threatening to break through his already-thin control. He watches as Mac visibly has to put forth more effort, his chest heaving. There're some sort of pads stuck all over his bare chest- to measure his vitals, Jack assumes- and they must be stuck on there with something strong, because they haven't come off yet, even though the kid's sweating like he's outside herding cattle on foot in Texas on the hottest day of summer. 

It happens suddenly, so fast that Jack almost doesn't catch it. Mac stumbles and falls to his hands and knees- or he would, if the treadmill wasn't going so fast. 

As it is, he's thrown off the treadmill with a not inconsiderable amount of force, and Jack winces as he tumbles over the ground, which is padded, to an extent- probably for this very reason- but is still hard enough to leave a few bruises. 

When he comes to a stop a few feet away, Higgins looks back at the camera. "Subject has reached its threshold. We are now attempting to see if subject will be able to continue at ten miles an hour." 

One of the guards on Mac's side of the room walks over to the kid and hauls him to his feet, shoving him roughly forward. Higgins makes a face and says, "Careful! That equipment is expensive." 

Jack's anger grows, hot and furious and screaming at him to do something, anything. 

Higgins nods to the now-stopped treadmill, motioning for Mac to climb back on the piece of equipment. The blond's face is grim, and Jack knows that he knows that he can't refuse.

The treadmill starts up again and increases speed quickly. This time, Mac makes it a few minutes at ten miles an hour, but his earlier run has taken its toll. The earlier scene is repeated, and this time, Mac lies on the padded floor for a few more seconds before pushing himself to his hands and knees. 

Then it's a third time, but this time, Mac's arms tremble when he tries to rise, and he can't stay on his feet when the guard drags him upright. 

Higgins makes some motion to the guards on Jack's side of the glass, and the next thing he knows, he's being held in a headlock, with a gun shoved underneath his jaw. There's blood rushing in his ears, and he can barely make out Higgins' next words. "Subject will now be subjected to emotional stress."

Jack can see Mac staring at him through the glass, his face twisted in horror as Higgins says something to him that's too soft for Jack to hear. 

This time, Mac turns and mounts the treadmill of his own accord. Higgins nods to the earlier assistant, and she presses the button again. Mac makes it ten minutes this time, his face flushed with exertion, before he falls again. Before the treadmill has even stopped, though, he's on his feet and running back towards it, mounting it without hesitation. 

This is repeated for another half hour, the intervals between Mac's impromptu visits to the floor growing less and less with each round- at a certain point he's barely running at all before he falls- until, finally, the young man can't make himself stand.

He tries to push himself to his feet, but his arms collapse beneath him, and, after the guard drags him upright yet again and then releases him, he sinks to his knees. 

It hurts Jack to know that the kid wouldn't have made it this long, wouldn't have been through this pain for this long, if Jack hadn't been in danger. 

Mac's body is turned towards Jack, face twisted in horror, as Higgins talks into the camera. The scientist's words seem to come from a distance, echoing vaguely in Jack's ears. "Subject must be shown penalty for behavior in order to attempt to motivate it further."

Jack feels a sudden pain blossom on his cheekbone, and it takes him a minute to realize that he's just been hit. Then, with no time given to him to recover, the gun's shoved against Jack's temple. Jack can hear, in the sudden quiet that seems to take over the room, the sound of the trigger being cocked.

Mac's trying to scramble to his feet, but he simply _can't_. It's physically impossible for him at this point. 

Still, his face is twisted in a fierce determination, and Jack just wishes that he had a chance to tell the kid goodbye. 

Then the gun's being removed from his head and Mac's being pulled to his feet by a guard that's easily twice his size. Jack's released, and he slumps onto the ground, sitting back on his knees, as his chest heaves with the sudden realization that  _he almost died_.

Mac's staring at him through the glass, eyes greedily taking in all of Jack's safe, still-in-one-piece head, even as he's shoved in a chair. A few minutes later, Higgins approaches him, but Mac doesn't move his desperate gaze from his friend.

Jack can't see the man's face, but he'd wager that the scientist's eyes have a morbidly curious look in them, just like the sick gleam that the man's gaze had earlier when he was regaling Jack with the wonders of  _science_.

Higgins seems, in Jack's eyes, to tower over Mac's slight form, and Jack can't help but wish he was on the other side of the glass- then again, he's been wanting that for a long time before now. 

The scientist is talking over the blond's head to the female assistant, who seems to be the second in command, as it were. Their voices are muted due to the glass, and Higgins isn't using the same voice that he uses when talking to the camera- the projecting, booming tone that's just a bit too excited- and Jack can't hear what they're saying. He can, however, see the way that Mac's eyes go just a bit wider, the way his jaw clenches in that way he has when he's scared but he doesn't want to display the fact to all. 

_What are they planning now?_

The kid's hauled upright by the same burly guard that seems to have been assigned to get Mac to wherever the scientists need him now, and Jack can't help but bristle at the way the young man is shoved around. Mac's steadier on his feet, this time, which makes Jack relieved, but it's obvious that the blond won't be able to move quickly for quite some time. 

This doesn't seem to matter, though, as Jack's partner is led to a large pull-up bar- the same sort of thing that you'd see in any gym, and the familiar piece of equipment drives the absurdity of the situation home to Jack.

He swallows down the urge to laugh that bubbles up in his throat.

The guard growls something to Mac, and the blond hesitates a moment before nodding. He shoots a glance back at Jack, his jaw clenching again- but this time in determination, not fear- and grasps the bar. At a word from Higgins, he begins to do pull-ups. 

Jack can't for the life of him figure out what this would do, but, he reasons, they have to start with mundane tests, and this must be one of them. As much as it pains him to see Mac this exhausted, driven to the point of collapsing, he can't help but think that this is better than other tests they might have planned. 

He knows, though, that those tests will come, and it won't be a pleasant experience for either Mac or Jack when they do, that they'll wish for these relatively mundane tests. 

He watches as Mac starts to slow, and the footsteps of the guards behind him come closer. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry this took me so long to get up. I was going to have it up yesterday, but I ended up feeling sick from a new medication I'm on. I'm feeling better now, though, so yay!

It's been- 

Jack doesn't know how long it's been since they were captured. He's been knocked out more than once by the guards during beatings that are administered to 'motivate' Mac, and he hasn't seen anything with a date in that time, If Higgins says the date when he starts the experiments of the day, he can't hear the man. 

Besides, time moves differently here. It stretches out in the moments that the younger man is in pain, during the nights where Jack can't see Mac now that they're holding them in separate rooms, and condenses in the moments when the blond is allowed rest between the experiments. 

Not that there's many of those. 

Jack stands in his normal spot as he waits for Mac to be brought in to the room on his side of the glass- arms folded across his chest, a few feet away from the window. A perfect vantage point that allows him to see almost the entire room, as well as distancing him from the guards that are scattered around his own side. 

The door on the other side of the glass opens, and Jack stiffens as he cranes his head as he tries to see the state of his friend. The older man's been harboring a suspicion that they've been depriving Mac of sleep, and this train of thought is confirmed with almost no uncertainty when the kid is shoved into the room. 

His blond hair is in disarray, and he looks visibly exhausted. It takes Mac a moment to step towards the place that Higgins is pointing him today- a large metal table that looks ominous, if only because of the experiments that Jack has seen Mac go through in the past few days. The kid's been, among other things, electrocuted, given various sickness-inducing serums and then forced to do tasks before being given the antidote, waterboarded, and shot in the arm. 

It's the last item on the list that worried Jack. He knows the kid's been trained to resist a lot; people in their line of work have to be able to withstand things that would horrify the general populace. 

Everyone has a breaking point, though, and that breaking point becomes lower without sleep or a friendly presence, and Jack knows with absolute certainty that there isn't a friendly presence on Mac's side of the room, and all of his guards have probably been given special orders to refuse to interact with him other than getting him where he needs to go. 

Jack's guards, well, they seem to have gained a grudging respect for Jack. They don't use unnecessary force when they're taking him to his cell or back to this room, and that's probably due to the fact that they can recognize a fellow fighter when they see one. Jack knows, though, that if he tries to fight back, respect or not, these men will take him down without hesitation. 

He's been hoping, praying, desperately believing that Higgins will keep Mac alive for a while yet, won't hurry through the experiments, as much as it pains him to know that he's hoping for something that will bring more pain for Mac. 

Jack doesn't want to know what'll happen if Higgins decides that Mac doesn't have a use in his twisted experiment anymore, though, and a hurt and exhausted Mac is better than a dead Mac.

(He wishes they could trade places, though, has offered such a thing to Higgins multiple times, but the man ignores him and continues on with a clinical coldness.) 

Higgins motions for Mac to sit on the table, and even at this distance Jack can see how Mac loses his balance ever so slightly as he hoists himself onto the table that's just tall enough that his feet don't touch the floor. 

Definite sleep deprivation. 

Higgins speaks into the camera, his voice sounding excited. Then again, there's always a disgustingly anticipatory edge to his voice when he's talking about the experiment. Jack can't wait to get to the other side of the glass and punch the guy. "Today, subject will be subjected to deprivation of oxygen. It is currently undetermined if a subject can force itself to stay conscious for longer periods of time with added motivation."

The scientist turns to plaster the normal pads on Mac's chest when it happens. 

Jack isn't expecting it, but he isn't really surprised, either. Mac jerks back, his eyes sparking with a sudden rebellion, anger taking the place of the daze that's been there for hours. The kid speaks, his voice rasping from disuse. "No."

Jack leans forward ever so slightly. If Mac makes a move he'll try and help him in any way he can, regardless of the pane of glass that separates the two. Higgins raises one eyebrow. He steps forward, looming over the younger man. "No?"

Mac leans away from the man. "I'm through cooperating. You're not going to kill me, because you need me as the subject, because you don't want to have wasted all of the time you spent on me. And- and you're not going to kill Jack, because you need him to motivate me-"

Higgins cuts him off, his voice silky, dangerous, deadly, cutting through the dead silence that's taken over both sides of the glass. "I'm afraid you've misunderstood. I don't want to start over, that's true, but I will if I need to. As for your friend, well, we can find other people that you care about- in fact, you seem like the type of person that would care about anyone that we could pick off the street." 

Mac doesn't answer, and Jack feels his heart sinking. Then Mac looks up, and Higgins must not like something that he sees in the young man's eyes, because his voice goes hard, and he says, "Maybe you need convincing that we're serious." 

He looks through the glass and nods to the guards. Mac's eyes connect with Jack's, his panicked gaze trying to- what? Warn Jack, apologize to him?

There's a moment of silence where Jack starts to turn, and then a gunshot sounds through the room, and all Jack hears before his world condenses into  _pain pain pain_ is his friend screaming his name. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took me so long, guys, especially since I was hoping to get this up on Sunday. Real life came out of nowhere and hit me hard.

Jack doubles over, clutching his arm, trying to stifle the shout of pain. He only partially succeeds, and a pained groan escapes his lips as he presses his shirt sleeve against his bicep, trying to stifle the blood that's flowing freely. Beside him, an unfamiliar gloved hand forces his own away and presses a gauze pad to the wound. Within a few minutes, the wound is expertly bandaged. 

The bullet is embedded in the wall a few feet away, and Jack realizes that it must've just grazed him.

As he looks through the window, he almost shoots to his feet and tries to physically break through it. As it is, he's only stopped by the guard's hand clutching his shoulder and forcing him to stay in a kneeling position, perhaps anticipating the movement. 

On the other side of the glass, Higgins' head is bent close to MacGyver and he's talking fiercely to the kid, but his voice is too low for Jack to hear, so the man can only judge what's going on by Mac's body language and expressions.

The blond listens, his eyes flicking between the scientist's face and Jack's wound, and Jack can almost hear the guilt-soaked thoughts that must be running through Mac's mind right now. Finally, after what is both a few seconds and a thousand years, Mac nods. Higgins steps back, and even though Jack can't see the other man's face at this angle, he can imagine the self-satisfied smile that must be decorating the scientist's face right now.

Higgins puts the pads on Mac's chest, and Mac's gaze doesn't move from where it's fallen to the floor. 

He's directed to a large, plastic-looking container, and he steps in, stumbling only once. He runs his fingers around the inside of it, and he grimaces, not liking what he finds. 

Higgins closes the door, and Jack notices a large, computerized lock placed prominently on the side. He swallows, his stomach sinking. Somehow, he knows that things are about to get worse, about to take the turn that he's feared this whole time. 

Higgins motions to the head assistant scientist, and, even though Jack can't hear it, he knows that a timer is being started. 

As they're watching Mac, who has sunk down to sit against the wall, the door on the other side of the glass is suddenly slammed open, and agents come pouring through the doorway.

Jack watches in disbelieving elation as he realizes that he _recognizes_ the agents. 

The guards on his side of the room converge together, one of them grabbing Jack in a headlock and pulling him in close as another leads the group through the door that Higgins used days ago to go from Jack's side of the room to the other. As they walk through the door, the majority of the agents transfer their weapons to aim at the newcomers.

Jack can see Patty moving her hand in seemingly-random patterns, but the man knows that they motions are part of a code and his boss is signalling orders to her agents. Jack readies himself to follow whatever orders Thornton will inevitably give him. 

The guard that's holding Jack forces him to the front, showing off his position as hostage. There's a sound from the large container in the side of the room, where Mac's still trapped, and Jack's gaze immediately goes to the kid that's staring at him with desperation as the younger man completely disregards the severity of his own situation as he takes in Jack's predicament.

Jack watches as Mac's face becomes paler, and his chest starts to heave with the effort of drawing in a breath. The air in the container is becoming thinner, and Mac's running out of time. 

Jack makes a decision. 

He grits his teeth, makes eye contact with Patty and flashes two fingers, then three, then two again. She gives the smallest of nods in confirmation, and then Jack  _moves_. 

He drives an elbow back into the guy that is holding him's solar plexus, turning his head and ducking at the same time. With four precise shots from Patty and a few other agents, each guard is on the floor and clutching at a bullet wound placed neatly in their kneecap. 

Jack doesn't notice that, though. He's running for the container that Mac's still trapped in, a gun that he snatched from one of the guard's ankle holster clutched in his hand.

Mac's eyes keep drifting shut, and he keeps forcing them open. He sees Jack coming and somehow manages to find the energy to scramble to the back of the cell, arms coming up to cover the top of his head, knowing instinctively what Jack's about to do. The older man brings the gun up and fires at the top of the container, then kicks the plastic-y substance as hard as he can.

It all goes crashing in, pieces falling in a rain of painful freedom. 

Jack moves into the cell, making his way to Mac, who's staring up at him through half-closed eyes that have circles so dark they could be confused for bruises underneath them. 

Carefully, ever-so-carefully, Jack picks Mac up, seeing that the blond is too weak to walk, but unwilling to leave him in the midst of the sharp pieces of plastic that cover the surface of the cell. 

The brunet sets Mac down in the middle of the room, and Mac, starting to recover his breath, looks up at him and mumbles, "That went well."

Then he collapses. Jack immediately feels for a pulse, and finds, to his horror, that there isn't one. The older man begins CPR as he screams for help. 

In the background, Higgins begins to laugh. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> some descriptions of medical stuff in this chapter, but nothing graphic at all

_One, two, three, four_

* * *

Jack continues CPR with a desperate rhythm. He feels Mac's ribs break and, in the back of his mind, remembers that that's a good thing. 

He continues pushing, ignores Patty talking into a radio with a calm, controlled, clinical voice.

* * *

_Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty_

* * *

Jack whispers underneath his breath as he works, keeping track of the times he's pushed his hands hard against Mac's chest. He can't mess this up.

He can't.

* * *

_Twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty_

* * *

Jack leans down and closes off Mac's nose with one hand while tilting his jaw upwards and opening it with the other. He sucks in a breath, gives it to Mac, repeats. 

He works for five cycles, then stops, leans down to check Mac's breathing and pulse again, holds his breath as he listens for the beat of Mac's heart. 

There's nothing. 

He starts again. 

He repeats the process again before the paramedics get there. Patty gives one of them the information they need, her voice still cold and clear, all hard edges and panic being shoved down from years of practice.

The paramedics tell Jack to move aside, and then there's a hand on his arm that's pulling him away from his friend, his responsibility, his  _brother_.

Jack turns on the person, ready to fight, before he realizes that it's Patty. She removes her hand and holds it up along with her other to show that she's unarmed, her eyes never leaving Jack's face. "Good?"

Jack stares at her for a moment, before turning and seeking out Mac with piercing eyes. The paramedics have loaded him onto a stretcher and are loading him onto a helicopter. Jack starts after them before Patty catches his arm again. "They told me to give them space, Jack. Our ride is over there." 

She points to another helicopter whose pilot is already doing pre-flight checks. Jack sprints for the helicopter without hesitation, and Patty is just behind him. 

* * *

On the flight back to headquarters Jack takes the time to really look at Patty. He takes in the way her eyes have tightly-drawn lines around them, the way her knuckles clench around the seat. He knows her well enough to know that she's probably thankful, at the moment, to not be the only team leader that had been there, that she could come back with Jack.

He knows she's probably blaming herself for not finding them soon enough. 

He knows he should say something. He really wants to. But-

But Mac was clinically dead, maybe still is. He's been tortured for days, been forced to push himself past the limits of what anyone should be able to do. The last time Jack saw him, he was lying, limp and pale and looking so  _small_ , on a stretcher and being pulled away so he could hopefully live. 

Jack looks out the window and watches the approaching city come ever closer.

* * *

They arrive at the hospital and Jack's world comes crashing down when the doctor approaches. He can barely hold himself still. He knows, he  _knows_ that Mac can't be gone, but if he is?

If he is, Jack's brother is  _gone_.

He digs his nail into his hands as the doctor reaches them. She speaks quickly, her brown eyes flashing with both worry and professional sympathy. Jack thinks that the lines around her eyes match Patty's.

She speaks. "He's in surgery. He was resuscitated, but his appendix ruptured. I'll make sure you're updated with any new information."

The doctor turns and disappears back through the doors that she had come through. Dazed, Jack stares after her until Patty gently leads him towards some chairs that are sitting in the hallway. They sit there, the quiet and knowledge smothering them, and they wait.

* * *

After an hour, Jack glances over at Patty. Her eyes are glued to the floor, and Jack knows that the furrow of her brow is the same one she always gets when she's beating herself up over something. 

His mind is clearer now, and he knows Patty did her best. He looks over at her and says, low and quiet, "It's not your fault, you know." 

Patty nods absently, her mind clearly elsewhere. Jack somehow finds the energy to reach over and nudge her until she looks over at him. He repeats his earlier statement, and Patty snaps back, "Yes, it is. I should've been able to find you earlier." 

Jack shakes his head firmly. "No, it isn't. You did your best. You did everything you could."

Patty doesn't reply, but Jack sees her shoulders relax just a bit.

* * *

He waits with Mac until the kid wakes up. It takes two days. 

He leaves once. 

When Higgins is transported to a holding cell at Phoenix, Jack visits him. Patty lets Jack know that there might be a slight malfunction with the cameras while he's in there. They've been acting up, after all.

The scientist's eyes light up when he sees Jack, and he's talking before the door is even shut. "Did the subject survive?" 

Jack slams his hands down on the table at that, his eyes burning with anger. "Shut up," he snarls, low and fierce and full of warning. 

For all his boasting about how smart he is, Higgins is an idiot, because he keeps right on talking. "I need to know for The Experiment." 

The way he says it, Jack can fairly hear the capital letters. He lunges across the table, his hands fisting in Higgins' shirt. "I said,  _shut up_."

Higgins shuts up. 

Jack releases Higgins, throws him back into his chair. The metal legs tilt off the ground for a moment, then thud back down with an echo that's deafening in the sudden silence of the cell. Jack begins to pace around Higgins, making sure the man is visibly uncomfortable before he starts speaking, the definite  _thunk_ of his boots punctuating his words. "You need to understand something, Higgins."

Jack stops in front of Higgins again. He leans across the table, uses one calloused hand to grab the collar of Higgins' shirt, pulls him forward, and says, voice low and quiet and cold, "You hurt someone I care about. Do you know what happens to the people that do that?"

Higgins swallows, his adam's apple bobbing. He shakes his head. Jack smiles, his grin sharp and predatory and full of too many teeth. "They aren't around anymore."

Jack releases the man again, then turns to go. Before he exits, though, he says, "If anything happens to him, I'll come back here and make you feel every single bit of pain he did, you understand me?"

He doesn't wait to see Higgins' response before he leaves again. 

* * *

When Mac wakes, Jack's just pulled himself from the light doze he had fallen into. He's gone back to what's been his normal activity over the past two days- staring at Mac and waiting for him to wake up, praying desperately that he  _will_ wake up, because the doctors had said there was a risk he wouldn't and-

Jack cuts that line of thought off immediately. There's no use worrying over that when Mac will wake up soon.

He  _will_.

And then he does.

Jack just stares for a moment at the way his friend's eyes are flickering wildly around the room before he snaps into action, pressing the nurse call button before he leans over Mac, gently pulling the kid's hands away from the nasal cannula that's currently resting in his nose. "Hey, buddy, don't touch that."

Before he can do anything else nurses fill the room, all bustling around the bed, taking Mac's vitals, checking various machines, and Jack's been relegated to a corner where he can, thankfully, still see. He takes the time to send a text to Patty, letting her know that their friend is awake. He imagines, briefly, the way she will ensure she is alone before allowing her shoulders to slump out of their carefully maintained posture in relief.

After a few minutes, the nurses begin to filter out of the room and soon it's only Jack, Mac, and one nurse left. The final nurse- Susan, according to her nametag- turns to Jack. "He's fine for now, but he'll probably be tired after a bit." She points at him. " _Don't_ wear him out." 

Jack raises his hands as if to say, "Who, me?" and the nurse eyes him suspiciously before turning to leave, tossing a final sentence over her shoulder as she walks through the door. "Use the nurse call button if anything happens."

Jack doesn't even reply before he's back by Mac's side. He settles back down in his chair, his eyes fixed on Mac's face. "How you feeling, buddy?"

Mac groans, then says, "Did you get the number of the truck that hit me?"

Jack feels a surge of panic. Does Mac really not remember? He says, trying not to let the fear he feels bubbling in his chest into his voice, "Do you remember what happened?" 

Mac takes a second to respond, his eyes flicking over the room as he sorts through his memories. "Yeah. Last thing I remember is you getting me out of that container." He pauses, then adds, "Did we get him?"

Jack nods, his panic dying down as he realizes that Mac does remember. "Yeah, we got him."

They sit in silence for a moment, and Jack realizes that Mac's starting to tire, so he pushes down his fear and says,"I'm sorry I couldn't protect you in there-"

Mac cuts him off with an intense tone that Jack's only heard a few times before. "No. It wasn't your fault, Jack. It wasn't. It was Higgins. He did- this. All of this." 

Jack sits, lets Mac's words wash over him. They absolve him of his guilt, and for the first time in days, he feels relief from the crushing weight that's been sitting on his shoulders ever since Mac was first hurt when they were captured. 

Mac snorts, and Jack brings his gaze up to Mac, who's trying not to laugh. "What's so funny?"

Mac gasps out, his face red from suppressed laughter and pain. "I don't know what I'm going to tell Bozer. I don't think he's going to buy that I had a car accident."

Jack stares at his friend, at the way he's thinner than he was two weeks ago, at the dark circles under his eyes that speak of exhaustion and pain, and the many bandages and tubes that cover him, at the way he's laughing his head off. Then he laughs as well. "Man, they've got you on the good stuff, don't they." 

Mac's laughing has begun to taper off, and he's looking more and more tired, so Jack reaches out and clasps one of his hands over Mac's smaller ones. "Go ahead and sleep, buddy. I'm here."

Mac does so, and Jack watches in satisfaction as the kid's chest rises and falls peacefully. 

They're going to be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> first off, i am SO sorry for being gone for almost a month. exams hit me, and then we were working like crazy to prepare for a party and family was in town, and then my anxiety hit me fast and hard. 
> 
> but!! i am back now!!! so hopefully you'll see some more fics/oneshots/chapters over the next few days.
> 
> also, i'd really appreciate y'all letting me know what you think of this, bc im thinking about writing more multi-chaps in the future.


End file.
